This is part of a month-long series of things I’m grateful for. So far, it has been my wife, my kids and my job. Today, it is the place that has helped shape me.
When I got the call about The Clarion-Ledger cartooning job back in 1996, I initially thought, naw. I had a great job in San Diego, California and enjoyed living there (it’s a great city). I also liked my co-workers. But I prayed about it and mailed in a packet of my work to David Hampton at The Clarion-Ledger.
Twenty-six years later, here I am.
I am not a Mississippian by birth. But Amy and I are from Marietta, Georgia and knew we wanted to start a family. Being 400 miles from them instead of a continent away was a huge selling point. And let’s be honest: San Diego is paradise for weather but Mississippi is paradise for political cartoonists. I’ve had great material to work with. I’ve been named a two-time Pulitzer Finalist while working for a smaller newspaper. That says a lot about the material I’ve had to draw about over the years. If the judges had met Frank Melton, I’d have won four years in a row!
I’m grateful for my crack team of comedy writers in the state Capitol building.
I initially thought I’d do a Deion Sanders — come in for a couple of years and move onto the next big thing. But something happened — I liked it here and loved the people who I worked with. I almost moved to Tulsa (way more money) but stayed here after I got a raise (which was then taken away, but I digress). Amy found a great teaching job and our boys were in fantastic schools where they thrived. That was a big reason why we didn’t go to Tulsa. I also knew the newspaper business was about to struggle; I had better chance of surviving here. And once again, with my parents being elderly, it was better to be closer to Atlanta. I bought a new car and put 50,000 miles in one year when they got sick. I am grateful I was close enough to be able to be with them before they died.
When I took the job here, the main reason was because of the people.
While on my interview, I fell in love with the folks I met. I feel like Mississippi has made me a better person. I’m less naive and it helped honed some of the rough edges off me personally. Mississippi challenges you daily — and can be a source of growth if you allow it. It’s also a land of storytellers who tell our complicated story beautifully through the arts. I love our artistic, musical and writing communities — while I’m probably not a part of any of those groups, I have loved getting to know and interview them. I do a lot of things now — someone asked me what I do and I replied, “I’m a storyteller.” I couldn’t have done that without Mississippi.
I don’t know what the future will bring but I am very grateful for the time I have spent here. I will keep telling stories for as long as I can. And I am grateful for the good, the bad, and the blessings they both have brought.
P.S. A quick shout out to Dan Turner for telling me about the job and for David Hampton for hiring me at the C-L. Mississippi wasn’t on my bingo card growing up, but I feel like I won because it’s on there now.
